Sunday I really messed up my drive on the new system by failing to reboot between app installs (duh). After installing Vegas, DVDA, Sound Forge, Norton Systemworks, and finally GoBack, I re booted, creating a mess.

I can't say enough good about Bob Greene and his creation, BootMaster (http://www.bootmaster.filerecovery.biz). After downloading the free demo, you run it and create a report. Then you send it into Bob, who makes a recommendation both regarding the solution and whether or not BootMaster will help solve the problem. It turned out in my case the demo alone was enough to get the job done (changing the partition from GoBack to NTFS). Amazing--real live help, basically for free.

I have Pixelan Spicemaster 2 in my hard drive but it refuses to open up in Vegas 5.0. It says "unsupported format." This despite the installation process ostensibly gone smoothly. I see all the files in the hard drive but I can't access them. What can I do?

Ok so now that the transition thing is done with I think I am left with one tiny problem. I did some compositing on one track but if I had , let say, a text event higher or lower then that one track the compositing will affect that track also.

Is it possible then to bypass the compositing or end the effect of the compositing when the intro is done.

So far I muted the track so I can at least work but that won't do when it comes to rendering the whole thing.

You can use the parent/child compositing buttons to set the 'hierarchy' of the compositing modes. In the video track controls in the left hand column, there are buttons for Make Compositing Parent/Child.

The parent's compositing mode will only affect the children, as far as I can figure out.

Just use a split screen. For example, shoot the video twice - once for each half of the screen. When adding to the timeline, Mask half of the top one so that only the proper half shows allowing the other half on the lower track to show. I have some masking examples in my newsletters but not one that specifically covers this exact situation. In short:

Digital Juice??
hmm.. well to gaet any results using that u need to eitehr convert all the mov files to raw, uncompressed with transparency.. this takes alot of time.. another solution for useing these in vegas was to chroma key they grey..

also why would one need ulead cool 3d, when BluffTitler is faster, easier to use, realtime output in any format, offers particle and liquids, and is probably one of the most underated Titlers out there..??
If ur creating 3d objects, do it properly and use lightwave..

my must haves would have to be..

Pixelan SpiceFilters...
the new noise filter is great way to add lighting effects, step time, step motion etc.. brilliant stuff..

The shake tremor script. dunno who its from though..
mixed with spicemaster step motion and some titles.. hmmm :)
Also any oher script which simplifies the work..

BluffTitler
for animated opengl 3d titling
brilliant stuff

Particle Illusion
pretty obvious

I use digital juice when it actually works for me with chromakeying.. i dont like how V4 or V5 doesnt recoognise its transparency.

a Midi controller
I use a yamaha rs7000 music workstation

a good imagination always helps too..

wish list for version 6.

Bolt on support for realtime output/render using a Hardware accelerator.
Even if its 2 video layer and 1 title layer, thats enough for most wrk.

faster rendering

Metadata on rendered clips, which details affects implemented, slowmotion rates, frame rates etc. This can then be pulled up as a reference for matchin slow mo settings, colour corrections.

a colour change filter click on the colour u wnat to change, and then click on the new colour. Prem and Matrox do this easily...

background rendering

Vegas needs is seconday colour corrector..

faster rendering

a Chromonance and Luma key as found in canopus storm2.. similar to the above, but much more refined.

Consistant slow motion filter, as opposed to slow mo/blending/blur settings being in the project settings...... apply the filter or "slow mo settings" on the clip prior to slowing down.
this allows u to use these settings in other projects.

?
Vegas 5 does have a secondary color corrector. It's called "Color Corrector (Secondary)". There are a few areas where it can use improvement, but it's fairly powerful.

You can use the secondary color corrector to generate a mask, which makes it a bit more useful. You can soften the mask with any of the various blur filters to create a softer mask with less artifacting and hard edges. Apply the chroma blur filter upstream for a cleaner mask if necessary.

Add a text generated media. Type the text all on ONE line. On the position tab set the "Y" position to set the location on the screen. Now for the first keyframe, position the text off the right edge of the screen. On the second keyframe, position the text off the left edge of the screen (making sure the "Y" position does not change)

One thing to make sure, the text generated media has a "Length" that must be changed to the correct amount of time you wish it to scroll. You should set the "length" before you set the last keyframe (or you'll have to move it to the end.)